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CleanTechnica reports
The "flash drought" that came out of nowhere this summer in the US High Plains, afflicting Montana and the Dakotas the worst, has already destroyed more than half of this year's wheat crop, going by some recent field surveys. Considering that the region is now one of the top wheat-growing regions in the world, the damage is very notable.
These so-called flash droughts are expected to become considerably more common over the coming decades as the climate continues warming and weather patterns continue changing.
[...] Something that's interesting to note here is that 2011, only 6 years back, was actually one of the wettest years on record in eastern Montana. Those sorts of rapid swings between extreme precipitation and flooding on the one hand, and extreme flash droughts on the other, are only going to become more common from here on out. Eventually, most of the agriculture in the region will have to cease.
Grist calls this a Cereal Killer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 10 2017, @05:29PM (12 children)
Good thing I'm on a ketogenic diet now and don't touch anything with carbs in it...
It's going to spike the price of bread, cereal, and many processed foods and that's gonna sting for a lot of people, but on the bright side people in America need to go on a diet and stop eating so much sugar and carbs because it's giving them diabetes and heart disease, so this is an opportunity to cut back. I say that as a person who loves bread and loves pastry, too.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @05:56PM (3 children)
you still "touch" carbs indirectly, as your non-carb products are probably fed a rather high carb diet, which is based off if cereal grains or byproducts.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday August 10 2017, @06:23PM (2 children)
Nothing fattens up mammals quite like corn products, see both livestock farmers AND the fatties on peopleofwalmart.com
Its all one big icky interconnected marketplace. Less wheat means more corn demand means more demand for grass fed beef means my local farmer who sells me 1/2 cows is gonna end up charging us more because they'll be more people bidding for his cows.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 10 2017, @11:28PM
Good point. Luckily, I know how to fish.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday August 11 2017, @03:13PM
It isn't corn making Americans fat, or they would have been fat two centuries ago. Americans have always eaten lots of corn. The obesity epidemic is caused mostly by high fructose corn syrup they started substituting for sugar in everything. Some canners are adding HFCS to vegetables. Vegetables aren't supposed to be sweet, damn it!
Of course, the huge portions served these days is another reason. When I was a kid there was no such thing as a quarter pound hamburger, now half pounders are common. Soda at McDonald's was an eight ounce small, twelve ounce medium and sixteen ounce large. Yesterday's large drink is today's small drink (loaded with HFCS, of course).
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(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday August 10 2017, @06:03PM (6 children)
Darn optimists! "It's not a famine, it's a diet opportunity!"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 10 2017, @08:02PM (5 children)
Pessimists are usually correct because optimists are full of . . . um . . . something.
Pessimists should be called Realists.
I can find a local Optimists Club in my community. But no Pessimists Club?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 10 2017, @08:22PM (1 child)
A pessimist is never disappointed...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday August 11 2017, @03:16PM
The optimist is often disappointed. The pessimist is often happily surprised.
"Is the glass half empty of half full" the wrong question. The correct question is, is half a glass sufficient?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @08:30PM (1 child)
https://www.ieee.org/ [ieee.org]
Engineers are always trying to anticipate what could go wrong.
They build significant margins into designs to attempt to cover for that.
The best engineers are the biggest pessimists.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday August 10 2017, @10:14PM
Darn.. If I'd done engineering at Uni, I could have an excuse for my realism.. "No, I'm not a pessimist, I'm an engineer with large margins of error"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1) by Farmer Tim on Thursday August 10 2017, @09:51PM
The realist is the one who goes out and asks whether anyone is interested before starting the club rather than making a decision based on their assumptions. Since there isn't a realist's club either it would be easy to assume that realism is the same as pessimism, however that ignores the overwhelming evidence that very few people are interested in reality.
Came for the news, stayed for the soap opera.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @08:01PM
good for you. i'm convinced it's the way to go too, though i don't do the full 70fat/25protein/5carbs. i do more of a 50/25/25 but the last 25 i try to get from vegetables. zero grains. i dropped 50 pounds of lard, then added back about 10 of muscle. still have 10-15? of fat to go. It's still melting, just slower. i could speed it up easily if i wanted too by getting closer to the 70/25/5(it hauls ass at this ratio once it gets going. like a pound a day or something.) but i don't need to. this is fast enough.